New Delhi [India], July 30 (ANI): Google and the Retailers Association of India (RAI) have announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate digital adoption among Indian retailers, with a focus on small and medium businesses, through RAI's network representing over 600,000 storefronts across the country.

According to a joint press release issued on Thursday, the collaboration will leverage Google's product ecosystem, including Google Business Profile, Google Ads, Google Shopping and Google Cloud, to deliver scalable digital solutions and expand digital enablement for retailers.

The initiative will focus on three key areas -- accelerating digital adoption among small and medium retailers, sharing industry insights and digital readiness frameworks, and preparing businesses for the future of commerce through industry summits, executive workshops and leadership dialogues.

As part of the partnership, retailers will be supported in using Google Business Profile and Merchant Center to improve the online discoverability of their stores and showcase in-store inventory. The collaboration will also help businesses strengthen their local reach through Google Ads across Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Pay and Google Maps.

Kumar Rajagopalan, Chief Executive Officer of the Retailers Association of India, said the initiative aims to help retailers adopt technologies that enable them to remain relevant to customers.

'Retail success involves the ability for retailers to know their customers, as well as to adopt modern methods, especially digitization. Retailers Association of India believes in creating a level-playing field for all types of retailers... This initiative between RAI and Google will help in creating capabilities of digitization for retailers across the country,' he said.

Shalini Puchalapalli, Managing Director, Google Customer Solutions, Google India, said the collaboration seeks to bring the combined capabilities of Google Shopping, Google Ads, Google Cloud and Google Pay, underpinned by Google AI, to help merchants build resilient businesses.

To oversee implementation, the two organisations will set up a Joint Working Group comprising representatives from Google and RAI. The group will monitor execution of the initiative and share industry learnings and best practices as the collaboration progresses. (ANI)